This invention relates to presses. More particularly, this invention relates to a press including an easily removable and interchangeable expandable solid buck, and a cooperating pressing plate configured for coaction with the buck to provide a continuous press of a garment even when the buck is in its expanded position. The entire press may be configured as a collapsible wall unit or as a free standing floor unit.
The concept of a longitudinally rotatable buck coacting with a pressing plate is set forth in my previous U. S. Pat. No. 4,689,905, issued Sept. 1, 1987 and entitled Collapsible Laundry Press. In this earlier patent I disclose a rotatable, expandable buck which coacts with a pressing plate to press a garment.
The concept of using an expandable buck can be simply stated. A garment, such as a man's shirt, is typically at least partially buttoned and treaded over the rotatable buck. The buck is then expanded so as to occupy the full girth of the garment. The pressing plate then coacts with the buck to press the garment.
Unfortunately, in the expanding bucks of the prior art, my own buck included, the surface is uneven at the intersection of the expandable and fixed portions of the buck. This unevenness creates an essentially unpressed area of the garment. While such an unpressed area is not completely fatal to the desired press appearance of the garment, it is undesired.
It is the purpose of this invention to do away with the difficulty encountered.
Expandable bucks are known which are pneumatically inflated. Such bucks, found on commercial pressing equipment, require complex pneumatic supplies and generally do not have the simplicity of appliance herein disclosed.